Your daily dose of old world gangsters who were rubbed out doing what they loved most. Plus some other fun stuff.

Arrest of Francis 'Two Gun' Crowley

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Monday, January 28, 2008

Catch up time

Here's what was missed over the weekend. Both of these took place in 1932:

John Doyle, known as both Jocko Doyle and Jackie Doyle, was a career criminal with fourteen arrests and three convictions on his record. The three convictions were for burglary and assault with intent to kill but it was for moving into the drug trade that police believe he was put on the spot. At the time of his death Doyle was out on bail following an arrest in Philadelphia for a hold up. It was also in the City of Brotherly Love nine years previous that Doyle and a partner named “Big Frank” Watkins were sought for a gangland murder and police traced them to a house on the west side where they had to shoot it out with duo. Watkins was killed and Doyle was arrested but later cleared of the killing. Philly police also said that Doyle was active in South Jersey as a beer runner. The end came at 3:00 am the morning of the 26th when two gunmen entered the restaurant that he was eating in and shot him seven times. Other then saying that they thought Doyle was stealing drug customers from established dealers the police didn’t elaborate on their theory as to why he was killed or who killed him but the number one drug lord in the city at that time was “Lucky” Luciano so perhaps it was on his order that Doyle was hit.

And on the following day

A group of children in Harlem were brought face to face with gangland when they encountered twenty-four year old Anthony Sancione in the hall way of a tenement with two bullets in his head. The kids quickly ran for a policeman who came up and found that the gangster was still alive. An ambulance was called but the gangster died en-route to the hospital. His record showed that he had been arrested numerous times but never convicted.

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About Me

Author of: On The Spot: Gangland Murders in Prohibition New York City 1930-1933, Hollywood on the Spot: Crimes Against the Early Movie Stars, Legs Diamond: Gangster. Gangster City: The History of the New York Underworld 1900-1935. Notorious New Yorkers: Two Gun Crowley. Notorious New Yorkers: The Bobbed Haired Bandit. Notorious New Yorkers: Vivian Gordon.